The N.C. Attorney General’s Office has sued a now-defunct Burlington kitchen remodeling company after it reportedly left dozens of homeowners across North Carolina high and dry.

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Attorney General Roy Cooper filed a civil suit in Wake County Superior Court against American Kitchen Corp. and its owners, Robert Selfors and Tyler Justin Sheets. The suit seeks to ban the owners from offering home repairs or home improvement services in the future, and to force them to pay retribution to the homeowner victims.

Cooper says American Kitchen offered kitchen remodeling services, often requiring customers to pay up front, and then hired subcontractors to complete the remodeling work. The company was unable to pay the subcontractors to complete the existing jobs without recruiting new customers.

“American Kitchen started to fail when the company was no longer able to bring in new customers to pay subcontractors and suppliers,” according to an NCDOJ press release. “The unpaid subcontractors and suppliers recently filed liens against several customers’ homes, many of whose kitchen remodeling jobs remain unfinished.”

To date, 32 North Carolina homeowners have reported either losing money to American Kitchen, having liens placed on their property, or both, according to the lawsuit. Total losses are estimated at $400,000.

Attempts to reach Sheets and Selfors by the office phone and by numbers provided by customers were unsuccessful.

The Burlington company shuttered its Tucker Street office in June and, to date, 30 complaints have been filed with the Better Business Bureau’s Greensboro office.

Paul and Frances Tausch, who live in Wake Forest and have family in Burlington, paid American Kitchen a little more than $12,000 for a remodeled kitchen. Work on the kitchen, despite being scheduled to begin in May, never occurred.

“We’ve had a lot of people who have reached out to us,” Frances Tausch said. “The lawsuit is going in the right direction, and I hope with the lawsuit American Kitchen is made to pay us. I wish it will forever prevent (Sheets) and his pal from operating here again in North Carolina.”

“Kitchen Carolina left scores of North Carolina homeowners with partially completed kitchen projects, kitchen projects that were never even commenced despite the fact that homeowners had paid substantial deposits, and/or unpaid suppliers and subcontractors of Kitchen Carolina filing liens against the homeowners’ properties,” according to the lawsuit.

In 2009 and 2010, 77 home owners filed complaints against Kitchen Carolina.

Kitchen America received a BBB rating last fall after three years of being in business, according to BBB Dispute Resolution Specialist Michael Henson.

“Sheets started American Kitchen as a separate entity and sought accreditation at that time,” Henson said previously. “Due to his connection with Kitchen America, he had to establish a three-year track record. He ultimately demonstrated the company’s ability to resolve disputes as they arose, and we allowed accreditation in the fall of 2013.”